Meredith Brooks

Debuting in 1997 with the provocatively titled single "Bitch," and returning in 1999 with an album titled Deconstruction, pop singer Meredith Brooks proves conclusively that you can mimic the precepts of postmodernism without having any idea what the heck you're doing. Brooks' voice plays like a poor country cousin of Alanis -- she's a little less angry and a little more cuddly. With a voice that is breathy, growling and, yes, female, Brooks' well-meaning ballads are extensively easy on the ears -- and as far from deconstructing the mainstream female Singer-Songwriter niche as Derrida is from Jim Nabors.